Originally Posted by
RocketGoBoom
That is not a fair representation of what is typically happening in these scenarios.
The rental car companies are not repairing the tiny damage marks even after they extort the payments out of the customers.
Then the rental car employees take advantage of the fact that 99% of customers don't notice such tiny blemishes on a rental car.
Many people have requested copies of repair bills and they are never produced.
Many people have seen substitute damage pictures sent, that are entirely different from the pictures they themselves took of disputed damage.
There is clearly a scam in the foreign rental car industry to try to take advantage of credit card insurance that most consumers have.
Many of those countries have very weak insurance fraud laws and lax prosecution history for such insurance fraud.
So to foreign car rental operations, it is an easy victimless crime, small enough scale that it won't get prosecuted, and it helps the profit margins dramatically in what would otherwise be a thin profit business.
At the end of the day, it is the credit card insurance businesses that is eating the bills.
Thanks for starting this thread and bringing up arbitration as an tool to counter scam damage claims but I disagree with first sentence that damage claims are typically scams. I welcome any evidence to support this assertion.
As debated in the Hertz Germany damage thread, that thread is inherently data bias as a renter would more likely post about a damage claim they don’t agree with than one where they did cause damage and paid up or rental agency dropped claim after renter responded they couldn’t have caused it. You’ll also never hear about scenarios where the rental agency decided not to pursue a claim at all. A good portion of claims reported on that thread could have been simply avoided if renter did a walk around and report any damages, however insignificant, not recorded on the vehicle conditions report before driving of as this is how it works in Germany (they are less lenient than US).
Furthermore, agency is NOT required to repair damage after receiving payment for claim since claim is essentially for loss of value.
I’m not saying scams don’t happen but I think it is a stretch to say damage claims are typically scams and part of the business model without providing evidence to back that up.
Thanks again for brining arbitration as a tool available if a scam damage claim should occur.